Answer from: Patricio Calamera, MD, MSc, ObGyn
No. There are many things that can cause low ovarian reserve but stress is not one of them.
Answer from: Zita West
I don’t think lots of women worry about being stressed and getting pregnant and it affecting their fertility. I think that stressors it’s not just about being stressed, stresses are when you have wake up and you have a bad day or someone tells you they’re pregnant or someone’s IVF’s worked and it hasn’t for you and you just that daily grind of uncertainty really grinds you down and that is stressful. I think it does affect hormones, It will affect your FSH, it will affect all of the interactions within your body, so what you can do is learn techniques to manage those stresses. Meditation, yoga, hypnotherapy – anything that’s going to put you into a lovely, sympathetic, calm state. Being able to breathe, etc. is going to help you but it’s not going to affect your egg reserves but it might, if you’re really worn down, affect your thyroid which in turn will affect your hormones and egg reserves etc.
